Apr 7, 2014

How to Spring Clean Your Digital Life with LastPass

It’s finally (finally!) that time of year again, where we dust off the remnants of Winter and welcome the warmer weather and sense of possibility of Spring. Spring is a perfect time to pause and make those much-needed changes you’ve been procrastinating on, especially when it comes to your online security. If you’re like us and you spend a fair bit of time sitting at your desk at work, it’s a great time to clean up your workspace and take stock of your online security efforts. Here’s how to do that with LastPass.

1. Collect & store random bits of personal information.

In the chaos of the workweek, it’s easy to accumulate little notes scattered all over - in Google Docs, in your Sticky Notes, in your calendar, scribbled wherever was convenient at the time. Find all those abandoned pieces of paper or digital clutter, get rid of what you no longer need, and enter any passwords into LastPass. If you have important PINs, codes, software keys, or other one-off pieces of data to store, create secure notes in LastPass to safely store and remember them.

2. Back up important documents, now.

It’s so easy to say “I’ll do it tomorrow”. Make a commitment to do it today. That way, if a hard drive crash, a stolen laptop, or a bad case of malware happens to you, you’ll be able to breathe a little easier knowing you still have what’s critical for you to recover and start over. In LastPass, use attachments in secure notes to back up scanned documents of your passport or driver’s license (especially before a trip!), to keep digital copies of important legal documents, and pretty much any other image, PDF, document, or Excel file you just couldn’t afford to lose.

3. Get rid of old accounts.

If it’s been a while since you’ve actually looked at what’s in your LastPass account, you might be surprised to see just how much you've accumulated over the years. When you run the LastPass Security Challenge, located in the Tools menu of the LastPass icon menu, it’s easy to see just how many accounts you’ve racked up. Take a stroll through your vault, and start shutting down accounts that you just don’t use anymore - for example, forgotten forum registrations or sign-ups from one-off purchases. You’ll likely reduce your incoming mail, too! Once you unsubscribe or delete an account, you can delete it in your LastPass vault, too.

4. Keep making progress on those weak passwords.

If you ran the Security Challenge, you may also have seen LastPass flag any weak and duplicate passwords stored in your vault. Use this knowledge to change those passwords. Log in to the accounts that have bad passwords, find where you can manage your settings, and update your password to one generated by LastPass. For more information, check out our article on replacing old passwords with generated ones.

What steps are you taking this Spring to improve your online security habits?

What is LastPass?

LastPass simplifies your online life by remembering your passwords for you. With LastPass to manage your logins, it's easy to have a strong, unique password for every online account and improve your online security. Get started today - it's free.